Friday, August 29, 2014

Wahoo! I have made it through my first few days at the MTC! I
arrived on Wednesday afternoon at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah
and was immediately taken to my first Chinese class. In class, I met my
companion, Sister Cutler, and the rest of my district. Also, I met my
teacher, He Laoshi. She is from China and we all love her! She absolutely
refuses to speak to us in English so we play a lot of charades. My class,
which is also my district, has 12 people in it (I think). There are two
sets of sisters and then a bunch of Elders. Most everyone in our district is
going to Taiwan except for me and two other elders going to Hong Kong, two
elders going to France (one Paris and the other Lyon), and then an elder headed
to Montreal. We also got to meet our zone too! Again, most people in our
zone are going to Taiwan. I actually think there are only 4 in our zone
going to Hong Kong (but I'm not positive).

On Thursday, we had a full day of studying and Chinese class.
It was rough - but good at the same time.

On Friday we had to teach our first lesson. We were
given an "investigator" (just an actor) and we had to teach him in
Chinese only THREE DAYS after being introduced to the language. It was
hard, but Sister Cutler and I had a good time anyways.

On Saturday we taught and studied again - basically the same routine.

Everyone has been telling us that the first few days are
awful, but once you get to Sunday everything gets better. I didn't think
that the first few days were awful....but Sunday really was AWESOME! We started
the morning with breakfast and then some study time. During our study time
our whole district got together and we sang hymns in Chinese and we passed
around our scriptures and everyone marked their favorite scripture in each other's scriptures. I chose 1 Nephi 17:50. It was some great
district bonding! We have all become really great friends and I am excited to
be with them all for the next 8 weeks. Then all the sisters went and
watched "Music and the Spoken Word" and then we had relief society.
After lunch we had sacrament meeting (all in Chinese) and then we
did this thing called Temple Walk. It was literally the coolest thing
ever. Our whole zone gets together (well all the zones at the MTC get
together) and we walk up to the temple. When we get there we go around
back and sing hymns on top of the hill. Everyone brings their cameras and
we have a fun little photo shoot. It was so fun! Our district and zone
are seriously the best! Sunday night we had a devotional (which was fantastic)
and then we watched a devotional that had been given by David A. Bednar a
couple years ago. It is called The Character of Christ and I highly recommend
looking it up!

On Monday we woke up and headed off to the temple with
our zone! It was so cool to see everyone there together!

I love the MTC! Sometimes (a lot of the time) the language
is hard and I'm like "oh my gosh i don't know any Chinese", but i have
to keep reminding myself that I have only been speaking Chinese for like 4
days ... I can even say a prayer now!

Oh, I also have a Chinese name which is pretty cool.
It is Shao Jie Mei. (Jiemei means sister)!

Anyways, the MTC is cool.
Missions are awesome. And I can't wait to preach the gospel in Chinese!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Today is my last day as a "normal" person. I have been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the China Hong Kong mission! I will be teaching the gospel in the Mandarin Chinese language! I am beyond excited. This evening I will officially be set apart as a missionary! Wohooooo! I'm so sad to be leaving my family and friends, but I cannot wait for the adventure ahead!

This blog will be run by my family while I am gone for the next 18 months. They will be posting pictures and updates about my life as a missionary. I am so excited to be leaving! I know that God loves each of his children and that he has a plan for us. I can't wait to be fully devote to helping others realize this too!